The woman warrior - Maxine Hong Kingston

"Chinese do not have to address children directly" (458-459). 

The woman warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Kingston

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives by Phyllis Ross 

    In this passage, Kingston endures such neglectful trauma from her family, which in turn causes her to be hard on herself. She was constantly surrounded by the unaprroval of her family members, making fun of things she can not change about herself, her appearance, and her voice. Chinese customs are a lot more strict than those in America. The Chinese were very secretive and liked to keep everything very structured, as Kingston's parents had engrained the words "don't tell" (455) in her brain. She had not wanted the life her mother wanted for her, which causes a division between the two. She wants to be free in America and attend university here and be able to freely express herself, just a few of the things she was not allowed to do in China. 

West with the Night - Beryl Markham

"It is no good telling yourself that one day you will wish you had never made that change; it is no good anticipating regret. Every tomorrow ought not to resemble every yesterday" (527). 

West with the Night by Beryl Markham 

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives by Phyllis Ross 

Beryl Markham

    In this passage, Markham flies airplanes for a living, as an independent and strong-willed woman. Similar to Dinesen, Markham displays a true appreciation for nature, as she also goes into depth on explaining how she perceives nature. Flight is a recurring theme in the text which I believe symbolizes exceeding the limits of expectations with strength and resilience. She keeps talking about there being barely any runway but still managed to save them. The thick dense forest I believe symbolizes perseverance through all hardships but still willingness to push through and make a difference. The quote above displays her sense of intelligence. She was a woman who grew up in Africa and then became a piolet to pursue her own career in making very good money in poaching elephants. If it was;t for her natural determination and perseverance, the story would not be as impactful. 

From Out of Africa - Isak Dinesen

Isak Dinesen 

"One of them was Lulu, for she came up near to the house, and walked about sedately, pricking her ears when a car arrived, or when we opened a window; and the dogs would know her. She became darker in colour with age" (228).

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives by Phyllis Ross 

From Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

    Karen Blixen, also known as Isak Dinesen is very passionate about nature, which I feel has to do with her working outside all the time, as women had to be outside in the fields working. As she was going through a divorce, the thing that gave her lots of joy was nature. The way she speaks about nature and animals portrays the euphoric feeling it gives her. From the way she compares sights, smells sounds, and feelings to make the readers feel what she is also feeling. Her descriptiveness allows the reader to see her personality and the way she was so in tune with nature and her appreciation for its natural beauty. 

Her relationship with the fawns and Lulu seemed very symbolic to me. They always arrived around sunset or sunrise and hid when the weather was rough, which I feel signified changes in time and environment. The fawns would show themselves during a time of change to "comfort" Isak. I feel as though since she was now alone, she sought companionship, and went to what she appreciated most: nature. 

Totto-chan - Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

"Sometimes she was a swan, sometimes teh wind, sometimes a grotesque person, sometimes a tree. All alone n the deserted playground she danced and danced" (472).

Totto-chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives by Phyllis Ross 

    I loved this passage over others because of the freedom Tott-chan

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

advocated for freedom of choice, and it shows throughout Tetsuko's writing. During the play Totto-chan put on for his class in the section Amature Play, there was lots of room for personal expression, even though it was put to an end after a few careless acts. Totto-chan does not just educates his students on eurythmics, he shows them his passion for it and we see this again in the section Chalk when he allows the children to draw all over the floor with chalk. He allows his students to write "as they liked" (473) which I find very admirable, also due to the fact that during this time period, there wasn't much freedom. 

In the section Tea Party, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on new experiences. They are calling the farewell party a tea party to not make anyone upset, Tetsuko also emphasized many irrelevant things that the kids saw for the first time, to add to the "excitement" of it all to distract them from what is really going on. The passage ends very nicely with the children speaking with Ryo-chan and expressing their admiration for him. Overall, I found this a very uplifting read. 

From Landscape for a Good Woman - Carolyn Kay Steedman

From Landscape for a Good Woman by Carolyn Kay Steedman 

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives By Phyllis Ross 

 Carolyn Kay Steedman 

    In Carolyn Key Steedman's passage From  Landscape For A Good Woman, Steedman discusses the physical and mental damages the war had left behind. The city was destroyed and so were the lives of the people who lived through the war, some of whom were close to Caroyln; her mother, and her father. As she grew up and became more independent and mature, she learned more about why she grew up the way she did and realized she was actually lucky. Though she had much to be thankful for, resentment towards her father was prominent due to blaming him for the visceral state of their family and the "dissatisfaction" (718) of her mother. 

The trauma from the war her parents went through stuck with them and continued to affect them for many years after.  Carolyn, being born right after WWII, was born into an era of the fantasy of life before the war, and Carolyn's mother lived in her own materialistic fantasy world. Carolyn saw this affect her mother as her"fair-tale [had] failed" (724) and felt bad for her, as she believed her mother deserved much more. 

From Times And Places - Emily Hahn

"I felt very guilty about everything in the world, but it was not agony. It was supportable" (357). 

From Times And Places by Emily Hahn

From The Norton's Book of Woman's Lives By Phyllis Ross 

Emily Hanh

    Put into a new environment, Emily had to adapt to a new lifestyle in China, where there happened to be a very bad opium outbreak. As she and her friend's lives became busier and busier, it became more and more tempting to use. Heh-van, in my opinion, is not a very good influence on Emily in multiple aspects as he tries to get her to use it again as he is incredibly oblivious to the powerful and detrimental effects it has on the human body. Since they had such busy lives, it became very easy to lose track of how much they were using, making addiction eminent. 

    She discusses how the areas hit the most are the poorer communities, as it was such a cheap way to get their fix. Uneducated, Emily seems to be unaware of how dangerous it is, as she says she "always wanted to be an opium addict"(344) which makes us believe she doesn't;t take it seriously at all. When she was also "sick with a cold", she made it seem like the drug wasn't the problem it was the wolr dhtat was the problem and she was just a victim. 

Blackberry Winter - Margaret Mead

"The tough treatment given us Professor Boas shook us up, prepared us for the unexpected, and be it said, the extremely difficult (558).  

From the Norton Book of Woman's Lives Phyllis Ross 

Blackberry Winter by Margaret Mead 

Margaret Mead 

    In this passage, Margaret spends time remembering what she has been through and what has gotten her to where she is now. She seemed to have such a deep respect for the Samoa culture which inspired her, later on, to pursue this in her education. Throughout the reading, she displayed a lot of skills and knowledge that took her to a place where she was powerful. This differs from the other woman we have read this semester as women were oppressed greatly and given fewer responsibilities and taken less seriously. She even "dined on the admiral's flagship", which proved to the people in Samoa that she was of important stature. Since she was very driven and confident, she got to experience things women at this time never got to experience.